Representations of space in contemporary Ukrainian literature

Abstract

The thesis examines representations of space in Ukrainian literature from the late 1980s
to the late 2000s. It argues that space in this period became an important preoccupation
for Ukrainian writers. Representations of cities, architecture, regions, geopolitical
spaces, the spaces of the home and of the body became common tropes through which
authors tackled the pressing cultural and political issues of the era, and sought cultural
and personal identity. The thesis discusses a wide range of leading contemporary
Ukrainian authors, looking at their use of space and the aesthetic, cultural and political
implications of this use. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first focuses on the
carnivalesque urban writing of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the second on
postcolonial and post-Soviet space, the third on gendered space, and the final chapter on
the relationship between time, space and text. The thesis argues that the preoccupation
with space defined the way in which Ukrainian literature represented the world in the
period in question, placing space as an equal and often privileged dimension over time.
The second important consequence of this was the development of a spatial conception
of text and language itself. The thesis demonstrates that in order to understand Ukrainian
literature of the post-independence period, it is necessary to think of it in terms of space.
It also argues that study of these texts can provide an understanding of space, both in
literature and beyond it.